By ROBYN SHAPIRO
Recently on “Morning Joe,” co-anchor Mika Brzezinski interviewed Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump. Brzezinski asked questions ranging from “Tell us about yourself” and “how did you fall in love with Donald,” to “How do you feel about your husband’s swearing” and her opinions about people calling him names. While these questions may have satisfied some viewer curiosity, they did yet touch the larger picture.
As the interview progressed, Brzezinski started to ask questions the audience was truly wondering. She asked Melania questions about what she thought of Trump’s rationales. As an immigrant from Slovenia, what was her opinion of her husband’s views on immigration? How did she feel about her husband calling Mexicans rapists?
While Melania answered the questions diplomatically and rationalized her husband’s opinions, she answers were somewhat vague. Though Brzezinski could have further interrogated her with questions, she held her journalistic integrity to let her answer and then move on to another pertinent question.
When presenting information to an audience it is imperative that the person providing the news stays calm and objective in order to deliver a message unbiased. I felt that Brzezinski’s interview was well done, because while she was straightforward in her questioning, she did not interrogate Melania Trump with inquiries after she answered. While she may have been frustrated by Melania’s lack of personal opinion and detail in her responses, Brzezinski held her cool and did not argue.
The news should be objectively delivered at all costs. While it may be difficult not to have opinion intertwined, it is important that viewers develop their own opinion from information that is presented. Getting emotionally involved (especially showing frustration or annoyance) in a topic shows a lack of professionalism and could persuade a viewer.
When information is objectively given it encourages viewers to do more research on the topic in order to develop an opinion. This consequently, encourages the audience to be more educated about the topics at hand.